NHL

7:05 AM ET Fall is a season of renewal for hockey players. In the NHL, the calendar shift is a mindset switch. Crisper air and shorter days foster boundless optimism for the season ahead. Anything is possible. Every team has a realistic shot to still be playing in the spring. “You wouldn’t be excited if

6:50 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Roman Josi was kind of joking. But he also kind of wasn’t upon assessing what the Norris Trophy landscape could look like over the next decade. Josi, who won the Norris as the NHL’s top defenseman after the 2019-20 season, would know. The 31-year-old Nashville Predators captain appeared to

7:00 AM ET The Edmonton Oilers are going to win the 2023 Stanley Cup. Granted, this might not be the best news for the Edmonton Oilers, as evidenced by the lack of a Stanley Cup parade for the New York Islanders last June. So, I reached out to Edmonton general manager Ken Holland to either

1:28 AM ET Associated Press FRISCO, Texas — Jason Robertson has signed a $31 million, four-year contract with the Dallas Stars after the young 40-goal scorer missed the first two weeks of training camp. The Stars announced the deal late Wednesday night, after their exhibition game in Denver, only a week before the regular-season opener

11:22 AM ET John BarrESPN.com Close Joined ESPN in June 2003 Winner: 2013 Peabody Award; 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award/Video Investigative Reporting Covers breaking news, investigative pieces and human interest features A Palm Beach County, Florida, doctor at the center of a massive health care fraud scheme that victimized patients seeking help for substance abuse

7:00 AM ET If there’s one thing the NHL league office is obsessed with, it’s competitive balance. Parity rules in hockey, and the league often emphasizes that it treats its 32 teams equally. That’s fostered by a hard salary cap. There’s a fixed amount teams can spend on players — and as the league recovers

4:40 PM ET Associated Press OTTAWA, Ontario — Hockey Canada’s board chairs, past and present, played defense when questioned Tuesday by the House of Commons about how it handled alleged sexual assaults and how money was paid out in lawsuits. Former chair Michael Brind’Amour, who resigned Aug. 6, and interim chair Andrea Skinner appeared via

12:57 PM ET Mathew Barzal signed an eight-year extension that will keep the star forward with the New York Islanders. The contract is worth $73.2 million, carrying an average annual value against the NHL salary cap of $9.15 million, his agent confirmed to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. In six seasons with the team, Barzal has 311

7:00 AM ET The NHL didn’t exactly have goalie tandems last season. It was more like gaggles of goaltenders. Due to COVID-19 absences, injuries and ineffectiveness, a record 119 goalies appeared in 2021-22 regular-season games, from Akira Schmid to Zach Fucale. As a result, NHL scoring numbers climbed to their highest levels in nearly 30

3:27 PM ET Cam Talbot will miss five to seven weeks with an upper-body injury, as the Ottawa Senators are forced to reshuffle their goaltending before the NHL regular season begins. Talbot, 35, was acquired by the Senators in July from the Minnesota Wild for goalie Filip Gustavsson. Talbot is entering his 10th NHL season,

9:00 AM ET The NHL is debuting digitally enhanced dasherboards (DED) for all games this season that will “erase and replace” the advertising found on arena rink boards with virtual ads on broadcasts. The DED system allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within local, national and international NHL game broadcasts. While overlaying

7:00 AM ET PITTSBURGH — SIDNEY CROSBY DOESN’T scare easily. But the future of the Pittsburgh Penguins had him unnerved. Center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang, Crosby’s teammates on all three of his Stanley Cup victories, were at the end of their contracts last season. Free agency loomed. Rare was the team, in hockey

9:37 PM ET SEATTLE — A presentation was taking place inside a conference room at the Seattle Kraken‘s practice facility when one of the doors began to slowly open. Panic began taking shape at that moment. This forced a 6-foot-tall, furry, blue troll with an anchor hoop earring dangling on his left side and a

10:53 AM ET The Montreal Canadiens signed goaltender Jake Allen to a two-year, $7.7 million contract extension on Saturday. The deal has an average annual value of $3.85 million and runs through the end of the 2024-25 season. Allen, 32, was 9-20-4 with a 3.30 goals-against average, .905 save percentage and two shutouts in 35

12:19 AM ET Associated Press ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ducks defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was taken off the Honda Center ice on a stretcher after he crashed into the end boards in the first period of Anaheim’s preseason game against the San Jose Sharks on Friday night. The Finnish defenseman was conscious and alert with full movement

1:24 PM ET ESPN News Services TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning and team owner Jeff Vinik are donating $2 million toward Hurricane Ian relief efforts. The NHL team announced Friday that $1 million each will be donated by the Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation and the Vinik Family Foundation. “This is a tragic situation

7:00 AM ET In hockey, it’s hard to go from the outhouse to the penthouse, because playoff contenders refuse to move out. Of the 16 teams that made the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, 12 of them were in the midst of multiyear postseason appearance streaks. If you include the COVID-19 bubble qualification series in 2020

4:39 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Rasmus Sandin has signed a two-year, $2.8 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the club announced on Thursday. The 22-year-old from Sweden was the 29th overall selection in the 2018 draft. Sandin had 16 points in 51 games with Toronto last season. He’s played in 88 career